The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-12-22

sion OF IL Dy aH lHIoTHdl sqoaoooi .
sovereignty. 81 promise to pay at the
bank five hundred dollars six months from
date" says the promissory note. ~
promise to pay my life thirty years from
date at the bank of the grave" says every
infraction of the laws of your phys cal
being.
WHAT Will mans body never COM
pleteiy recover from early dissipation in
world to come? Perhaps God will fix it
up in the resurrection body so that it will
not have to go limping through all etern-
ity; but get the liver thoroughly damaged
and it will stay damaged. Physicians
call it cancer of the liver, or hardening Of
the liver, or cirrhosis of the liver, or in
fammation of the liver, or fatty degenera-
ton of the liver, but Solomon puts all
these pangs into one figure and says:
Till the dart strike through his liver
That young man smoking cigarettes and
smoking cigars has no idea that he is get
ting for himself smoked liver. That
young man has no idea that he has by
early dissipation so depleted his energies
that he will go into the battle only half
armed. Napoleon lost Waterloo days be-
fore it was fought. Had he attacked the
English army before it was reinforced,
and taken it division by division, he might
have won the day, but he waited until he
had only one hundred thousand men
against two hundred thousand. And here
is young man who, if he
put ali his forces against the regi-
ment of youthful temptations, in
the strength of God might drive
them back, but he is allowing them to
be reinforced by the whole army of mid
life temptations, and when all these COM
bined forces are massed against him and
no Grouchy comes to help him, and Bluch-
er has come to help his foes, what but i'm.
mortal defeat can await him?
Oh, my young brother. do not make the
mistake that thousands all around you are
making in opening the battle against sin
too late, for this world too late, and for
the world to come too late. What brings
that express train from st. Louis into
Jersey City three hours late? They
lost fifteen minutes early on the route
and that affected them all the way, and
they had to be switched off here and
switched off there and detained here and
detained there, and the man who loses
time and strength in the earlier part of
the journey of life will suffer for it all the
way through, bne urSU tWouty years Ol lilo
damaging the following fifty years.
Some years ago scientific lecturer went
through the country exhibiting on great
canvas different parts of the huma body
when healthy and different parts when
diseased. And what the world. wants
now is some eloquent scientist to go
through the country showing to our young
psople on bl azing canvas the drum kard's
II 3 1 -
the gamblers liver. Perhaps the spectacle
might stop some young man before he
comes to the same catastrophe and the
dart strike through his own liver.
There is kind of sickness that is beau
tiful when it comes from overwork for
God, or ones country, or ones family.
have seen wounds that were glori-
Gus. After the battle of Antie.
tam, in the hospital, soldier
in reply to my question: "Where are you
hurt" uncovered his bosom and showed
me a cash that looked like a badge of
eternal nobility. 1 have seen an empty
sleeve that was more beautiful than the
most muscular forearm. l have seen q
green shade over the eve shot out in bat
| tie that was more leautiful than any two
eyes that had passed without injury.
with the malaria of African jungles: who
| looked more radiant to me than rubicund
gymnast. l have seen mother, after a
six weeks watching ovor a family of
children down with the scarlet
| fever, with a glory around her
| pale and wan face that sur
passed the angelic. It all depends on how
you got your sickness and in what battle
l Soi-
sen, the pride of New Jersey-aye, of the
| Nation-and one of the pillars of the
Christian Church, and for nearly four
| years practically President of the United
| States, although in the office of Secretary
| of State, in his determination to make
| peace with all the governments on this
| American continent, wore himself out,
| and while his brain was as keen as it ever
was, and his heart beat as regularly as it
! ever did, he was, according to the bulle-
| tins of his physicians at Washington
and Newark, dying of hardening of the
| liver. Satan, who does not like
| good men, sent dart through his
liver. The last my dear friend-for he
was my friend and my fathers friend
before me-the last he was seen in Wash.
ington was in the Presidents carriage,
| leaning his head against the shoulder of
the President, on his way to the depot to
take the train to go home to die. Martyr
of the public service, he died for his coun.
try, though he died in time of peace. In
his earlier life he was called the nephew
| of his uncle. Theodore Frelinghuy sen, but
he lived to render for God and his country
a service that will make others proud to
be his nephew, and which will keep his
name on the scroll of history as the high
est style of Christian statesman that this
century or any other century has pro-
| duced.
| My Lord and my God if we must get
sick and worn out, let it be in Thy service
and in the effort to make the world good
and happy. Not in the service Of sin. No
| No! One of the most pathetic scenes that
| | ever witnessed, and I often see it, is
| that of men or women converted in the
| fifties, or sixties, or seventies, wanting to
be useful, but they so served the world
| and Satan in the earlier part of their life
| that they have no physical energy left for
| the service of God. They sacrificed nerves,
| muscles, lungs heart and liver on the wrong
| altar. They fought on the wrong side and
now when their sword is all hacked up
| and their ammunition all gone. they en-.